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TO APPROACH IT, YOU WILL CERTAINLY MISS IT."
If you want to approach it, that is a sure sign that you are going to miss it because we approach things which are far away, we approach things which are not available, we approach things which are objects in the outside world.
The ordinary mind is your subjectivity; you cannot approach it. Who is going to approach it? You are it! There is no separation between you and the ordinary mind. You are creating now a new illusion of separation, hence the question, "How to approach it?" Now you have divided the subject -- the one who will approach -- and the object -- the one which has to be approached. Of course, then the question arises, "What means have to be employed?"
And the whole thing is meaningless. No means has to be employed, no methods arr needed. A simple understanding that you are born with it is enough. But the logical mind persists. The disciple goes on asking, "If you do not approach it, how do you know it is the Tao? We have to approach it, study it, understand it, find it, then only we can know that this is Tao."
Nan Chuan says:
"THE TAO IS NOT A MATTER OF KNOWING..."
It is the knower, hence it cannot be a matter of knowing. The knower cannot be known; you cannot reduce it into a known. It cannot be reduced into an object. It is always the knower, the witness; it never becomes the known.
"IT IS NOT A MATTER OF KNOWING NOR A MATTER OF NOT KNOWING."
"But don't misunderstand me," Nan Chuan is trying to say, because the logical mind immediately jumps to the opposite: if it is not a matter of knowing, then it must be a matter of not knowing. He makes you aware from the very beginning it is neither a matter of knowing nor a matter of not knowing, because that which is a matter of not knowing can be made a matter of knowing. That which is unknown today can be made known tomorrow. Many things were unknown before, now they are known. Many things are unknown today, will be known one day.
Science believes in only two categories: the known and the unknown. And the unknown is being transformed into the known every day. The ultimate idea of science is that one
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